hodgepodgejapanese

[hodgepodgejapanese]

For some reason a bird speaking Japanese is mildly off putting.

> Literal translation

Bird:“ ‘Uhm Hello, this is the Ono family.”

Bird: “What’s wrong?”

Owner: “Abe-chan, you’re a little too early. Once the phone’s picked up, then properly say hello.”

Bird: “Okay, understood.”

Owner: “Do you really understand? I’m counting on you. Hello, this is the Ono family residence in Gifu.”]

Bird: “Okay, I understand!”

Owner: “Got it.”

> That’s clearly some sort of Pokemon.

> Off-putting? It’s like birds were meant to speak Japanese!

> For some reason it’s never occurred to me that birds can mimic languages other than English. It’s so cool, though!

[hodgepodgejapanese]

Lingerie Models

In Japanese this is グラビアモデル.

It comes from the word ‘gravure’, short for ‘photogravure’. A photogravure is an image produced from a photographic negative transferred to a metal plate and etched in. Yet again, in my study of Japanese I learned English I didn’t know.

This strikes me as euphemistic, referring not to the woman herself and the sexual content itself but to a photographic process historically associated with it. A.V. (audiovisual) is similar, in which the Japanese word  エイヴィ refers to porn.

Perhaps even the English term ‘lingerie model’ is euphemistic in its own way. If we were being truthful we’d be describing the sexual aspect somehow, right? Not the clothing she is wearing.

[hodgepodgejapanese]

A Problem Shared Is A Problem Halved

膝とも談合（ひざともだんごう）

At least talk to your knee. (Talking to your knee is better than talking to no one.)

ひとりで思い悩むよりは，どんな人にでも相談した方がよい。

Maybe Japanese culture has got it right. I suspect there are a few specific situations where if you have to talk to someone, talking to your knee is actually better, because really, who wants to hear your bullshit. Though I don’t always get my life lessons from Desperate Housewives, I just watched the episode where Susan confesses to Edie Brit that she burnt her house down. She confessed because she couldn’t live with the guilt, not because it would help Edie in any way.

What do you think? Are there situations where it’s better to tell it to your knee? Might the modern trend be フェースブックとも談合？

[hodgepodgejapanese]

Club Commando

Things get weird when you start learning your Japanese from Facebook quizzes posted by your Japanese friends. Here’s another one from Von Von. 

ノーパンとは、日本において、「ノー・パンツ」または「ノー・パンティー」の略で、下半身に下着を着けていない状態を指す言葉。一般に全裸の状態はこう呼ばず、スカート・ズボンなど他の着衣はそのままで下着のみを着けていない状態について言うことが多い。

-- Wikipedia Japan

In Japanese ���noo pan’ is short for ‘no pants’ or ‘no panties’ and means to wear no underwear on the lower half of the body. It doesn’t refer to being totally naked in general -- instead it means to wear a skirt/trousers but just without underwear.

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[hodgepodgejapanese]

People today have forgotten they’re really just a part of nature. Yet, they destroy the nature on which our lives depend. They always think they can make something better. Especially scientists. They may be smart, but most don’t understand the heart of nature. They only invent things that, in the end, make people unhappy. Yet they’re so proud of their inventions. What’s worse, most people are, too. They view them as if they were miracles. They worship them. They don’t know it, but they’re losing nature. They don’t see that they’re going to perish. The most important things for human beings are clean air and clean water.

Akira Kurosawa, Yume (via themindmovement)

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Closing your eyes isn’t going to change anything. Nothing’s going to disappear just because you can’t see what’s going on. In fact, things will even be worse the next time you open your eyes. That’s the kind of world we live in. Keep your eyes wide open. Only a coward closes his eyes. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won’t make time stand still.

Haruki Murakami  (via themindmovement)

[hodgepodgejapanese]

As if Japan weren’t small enough to begin with, I fail to understand why it is necessary to think of it in even smaller units. No matter where I go in the world, although I can’t speak any foreign language, I don’t feel out of place. I think of the earth as my home. If everyone thought this way, people might notice just how foolish international friction is, and they would put an end to it. We are, after all, at a point where it is almost narrow-minded to think merely in geocentric terms. Human beings have launched satellites into outer space, and yet they still grovel on earth looking at their own feet like wild dogs. What is to become of our planet?

Akira Kurosawa (via themindmovement)

[hodgepodgejapanese]

I never got directly pushed in Tokyo but I've been on trains where other people were being pushed in.

[hodgepodgejapanese]

屋根裏

Attics In Japanese Homes

屋根裏（やねうら）とは、屋根の裏側に当たる部分の空間、天井と屋根の間の空間のことである。小屋裏、天井裏とも言う。

A ‘yaneura’ is the empty space under the roof, between the roof and the ceiling.

日本の住宅で��昔から物置のスペースとして使われ、薄暗い空間をイメージさせるが、近代建築などでは窓から光を取り入れ、書斎や子供部屋として使用されることもある。

In Japanese homes it has been used as a storage space and evokes a gloomy image, but in modern architecture sometimes light enters from windows and might be used as a library or a children’s bedroom. 

なお活用できないか、していない屋根裏にも、点検口を設けて最低限の出入りが可能なようにする必要がある。多くは押入れの隅に開かれることが多い。

There are more examples where a manhole provides a basic entry into the roof cavity. Most of these can be found at the back of wardrobes.

[hodgepodgejapanese]

Via Pinterest

[hodgepodgejapanese]

Shinbashi

Winter　2016

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友チョコ Chocolate you eat with your girlfriends

本命チョコ Chocolate you give to someone you really like

ぎりチョコ Chocolate you’re obliged to give to men you don’t really like

逆チョコ Chocolate that men give women (when the custom is the opposite)

[hodgepodgejapanese]

Japanese Is More Abstract Than English

Here’s my argument.

In English we might say ‘Move a table closer to the wall.’ 

Wall in Japanese is かべ. But a Japanese speaker would likely say something like テーブルを壁際に寄せる。

Note that the word 壁 on its own is an abstract idea of a wall -- at least more so than the English word ‘wall’ -- so ぎわ is added to turn it into something more concrete.

Similarly, the word ところ is used in Japanese to make ‘the idea of someone’ more concrete. 

In English we say, “Come over to me.” But in Japanese you would say “Come over to my place”, which doesn’t mean ‘my house’, but rather ‘where I am’. 

This is because ところ is a more concrete concept than わたし.